Wishing I Could Die Where I Met You
by GoddessOfDauntlessCake
Summary: Preston Jones is a son of Apollo. He has gone through many hardships growing up during The Great Depression, but his worst would have to be meeting Nico di Angelo only to have him taken away. Follow Preston's journey, from his life with Nico to the pains of WWII. Through it all, he learned to take nothing for granted, especially not someone you would die for.
1. Chapter 1

Difficult. If I had to find one word that describes rich children the best that would be it. They are also sticky little monsters which have an infinite amount of whining words on their tongues. If a child has not been through some kind of trauma in their life then I have no sympathy for them.

My mother always says to me, "Preston, all children have gone through a significant amount of trauma nowadays. Almost all of America can't put food in the mouths of their children. They are slowly starving." I find that yes, most kids now have seen some horrific things. They are strong and have earned my respect. Sadly, though, my mother does not want me to be a little nurse maid to any of them. She wants me to watch an upper class, snobby little brat who is some diplomat's grandson from _Italy_ of all places! Those rotten Italians are scoundrels, for Apollo's sake!

"You are not babysitting him, Preston. Mrs. di Angelo just thinks that Nico needs a brotherly figure. HIs sister is getting a bit old to be rough housing with him. I just thought that you could play with the boy for a few cents. Wouldn't that be fun, dear? Playing pirates or cards for a few hours after school? I thought you liked getting out of homework."

I sighed. My mother was a very intelligent woman and if things were different I am certain that she could have been an amazing teacher, perhaps even a doctor. She is too good to be a maid for some pompous Italians and I am too. "Mother, I don't want to play pirates with some little bratty rich boy! I would much rather do my homework and go hungry than have to sit on their oriental rugs and play games. Their money is like a slap in the face, mom. I don't wanna have to go through that every day."

My mother had a pained look on her face. She massaged her temples and gave me the most sincere look with her bright emerald eyes. It wasn't fair that her eyes emoted better than mine. I can never get my point across with my boring blue irises. "Please darling. We need the money. If we both work for the di Angelos, we get almost double the income. We need it, Pres. I won't make you sweet pea, but it would really help if you could just spend a few hours playing with Maria's son. Can you please do this for us? For me, honey?"

I cringed and tried to look away from my mother's stare, but it was impossible. She was right too. We did need the money and I was being selfish. I nodded. "All right, mom. I'll do it, but I won't be happy about it."

I grinned as she threw her arms around me in a tight hug. "Thank you, Preston. I love you so much, honey."

I squeezed her even tighter. Things were rough, but when her arms were around me, I knew it would all work itself out. "I love you too, mom. Everything will be ok."

* * *

"Di Angelo? Nico di Angelo? Like that convict Victor and the rest of 'em are look'n for?" my brother Emmett said over the telephone. You see, Em and I aren't full blooded brothers. We are half brothers and sons of the god Apollo. Neat right? We go to a place called Camp Half-Blood, a safe haven for other children and young adults like us, during the summer months. Then during the school year a whole lot of us go home to our mortal families. Those demigods without a mortal parent stay with Chiron, our trainer and friendly centaur, all year long. I keep in touch with Emmett during the rest of the year, though, because he is my favorite brother and best friend.

"Em, we all know _that_ NIco di Angelo is in hiding and an adult. He is probably not even in America. No, this runt is just some seven or eight year old who wants me to play stupid games with him."

"Then what makes him different than Artie or Miles? Just treat him like one of our little brothers, Pres. Don't have such a stick up your ass," Emmett said with a huge laugh. I was most definitely not amused. I huffed and pushed myself off the wall I had been leaning on.

"Emmett I do not have a stick up my ass! And this kid is different than our brothers. He has never lived a day of his life without food, has exorbitant toys and clothing, and will probably be rude and bratty!"

Emmett sighed. "If you end up hating him that much, then you are just gonna have'ta fake it, bud. Remember, this is for money. We always can use more of that, am I right?"

"Yeah I guess," I admitted. "Thanks Em. You're the best."

Emmett chuckled. "Yeah, I know. I gotta go, though. My break is over." Emmett worked in various clothing factories in Chicago during the year. The one he's in now actually gives them lunch breaks and he is pretty shaken up about how he is gonna have to quit when summer rolls around. Some of the other jobs he has described doing have given me nightmares.

"All right. Be safe, bud."

"You too, Pres. Good luck."

As soon as I hung up, I sat down and ate a hunk of cheese. I had just gotten home from school and my mom would be down any minute to get me. We live in the di Angelo's freezing cellar behind their house. We just moved in when my mom got this job two weeks ago. I have avoided the family so far, but today that was going to change.

The cellar door opened and my mother came down the stairs in her work clothes, a bright smile adorning her face. My mother was the kind of woman that could look simply beautiful even with coffee on her apron and soot in her graying honey hair. She could even make today seem like a good one.

"Good. You are back. The di Angelo's are ready to meet you. Especially Nico." With her last sentence my mother's smile grew, which confused me just a bit. I brushed it off and grabbed my coat.

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

Mother laughed, throwing her head back as she did. "Nico is not as bad as you think he'll be, Pres. Now come on."

Together we walked through the staff entrance. I had never seen such a gorgeous place. I had thought the cellar was nice, and we shared that with two other maids. If the staff entrance was this elaborately decorated, than what was the rest of their house like? Scratch that. I had always just seen this place as a house, but it is a mansion. I always thought that the mansions went away when the stock market crashed when I was little. I guess foreign dignitaries, senators, and representatives still lived the good life in Washington D.C.

"Wow," I said as we entered the gleaming marble entry way in the living space of di Angelo Manor. My mother simply chuckled and lead me into a small parlor room. Perhaps a sitting room? It was simpler but still awesome. I couldn't even remember to breath. I had to manually instruct myself. Breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out. It wasn't helping too much, but it would have to do. Because in the sitting room stood the three di Angelo's.

It was obvious to tell which di Angelo was which. A tall, gorgeous woman stood as we walked in. She had short chocolate brown hair and bright hazel eyes. Her face was perfectly angled and she wore a cerulean blue day dress with matching shoes. She was most definitely Maria di Angelo, the matriarch. The younger girl beside her looked almost identical and my age. She wore an ensemble of silky clothing I had only ever seen on movie posters and her long black hair was pinned up so that it flowed down her back in curled waves. She had the same eyes as well. This must be Bianca, the eldest daughter. And finally, bouncing on the balls of his feet in the most jittery way, was Nico di Angelo. His black hair was trimmed to perfection and was like a dark halo to his tan face and his eyes! were like small pieces of oblivion. They were so dark you could barely see the line between his pupil and iris. He had on a pair of gray shorts and a matching jacket. He also had a matching cap in his hand. They all looked so prim and dressed up compared to my dirty slacks and shirt and my long uncut hair. I felt like I was in a room with the president or queen of England, awkward and out of place.

Mrs. di Angelo smiled at me kindly then looked at my mother. "Is this your son Lina? He is a very handsome boy. You must be very proud."

Her voice dripped with her Italian accent, but the woman spoke perfect English. Mother smiled back at her with just as much charm. "Thank you ma'am. I am very proud of him."

Mrs. di Angelo nodded and turned to me. "What is your name young man?"

"Preston Jones, ma'am. It is very nice to meet you."

"And you," Mrs. di Angelo answered. "Thank you so much for doing this Preston. NIco is very excited to make a new friend."

"Yeah!" said boy exclaimed with so much excitement I almost jumped out of my boots. He was jumping up and down and his sister smirked devilishly at me. He is your ball of energy now. Great. Excitement is so my thing to deal with. "We are going to have so much fun! I can show you my toys, and my costume pieces, and my swords…" Swords? I never really have been a sword person. Being a son of Apollo I have always favored the bow, but I can handle a sword when I have to. This may actually not be pure hell.

"Settle down, darling," Mrs. di Angelo told her son. "Why don't you and Bianca go show Preston all of those things while I speak with his mother."

"Yay!" the boy cheered and took my hand. I felt a strange spark go up my arm when he touched me. It must have been the rug. I looked up at my mother to see what I should do. She nodded at me to follow the kids. I internally sighed. Here we go.

As Nico blabbered on and ran ahead, I looked around the house with Bianca as my guide. "My brother can be a handful," she admitted as we climbed the stairs. "But he is very sweet. Innocent. He doesn't understand the war or why we had to move here, but I do. I also can tell that you don't want to be here. Tough luck. Just don't let him know that or else you may get waterworks. Did you understand all of that?"

I nodded, grazing my fingers over the portraits and artwork on the wall. They were all exquisite work. Bianca snapped in front of my face, breaking me out of a reverie.

"This is our playroom. Not as good as the one back home, but for now it has to do. Nico adores pirates, so he will probably want to do that first. At least try to get into it. It can actually be really fun if you let loose. You don't seem like the kind where 'loose' comes easily though. You are as stiff as a board. Are you sure you don't come from money?"

I rolled my eyes at her. Boy could these people talk. "No, I'm the Prince of England. And I can too let loose, just not the ways everybody else do."

"Uh huh," she said like she wasn't listening. Rich people. "Now get in there and have some fun, stick in the mud. Don't let me down or I'll squash you like a bug on my wall."

Bianca walked away, leaving me alone in front of the playroom door. I knocked twice. Almost immediately the door swung open and almost hit me in the face. Inside stood Nico and three giant chests, two of them opened with items spread across the room. There were wooden swords, metal helmets, tricornered hats, eye patches, dolls, board games, and cards all over the place. Three large windows looked out to the back yard, where I could see the other two maids, Dorris and Gail, hanging clothing up to dry on the line. There were tables with stuffed bears and rabbits drinking faux tea and a ginormous doll house. I was completely awestruck. This room was any child's dream and had enough toys inside to fill a store.

"There you are!" NIco smiled with glee. "Come inside! Let's play pirates!"

 **A/N- Well hello there! I don't want to say that I forgot about fanfiction, but I kind of forgot about fanfiction. A lot has happened since I last posted. I'm fifteen now, I'm in high school, and I love it. I am actually in a journalism class right now at school and I think it has kind of improved my writing. Anyway, for a time I think writing for me was on the back burner. I thought I wasn't good enough, that my future does not require me to write, and that I wasn't getting anywhere. Up until recently, I hadn't even been playing out book plots in my head anymore, which I had _always_ been doing when I first started this account. I think now I have found myself again because I had been a little lost this past year. It feels really good to be back.**

 **If you are just here for the story and don't care about my personal crap, read this part below :)**

 **So yeah! Who is Preston? Why is he important in Nico's backstory? Why is any of this important at all? Well, Preston is a character I created listening to the song _When I Look At You_ by Miley Cyrus. If you have read any part of my sister ChildofApolloHunterofArtemis's story _The Many Lives of Annabeth Chase_ you may have heard of Preston, Emmett, and Victor. Yes they are the same people in both. We came up with all of these characters together. And this story takes place in late October of 1939, after the start of WWII. I will inform you when there are time jumps since this isn't going to be super long.**

 **So yeah! That's it and I hope you enjoyed!**

 **And my DISCLAIMER- I own nothing. Accept all of my characters. Yeah those are mine and my sister's.**

 **Oh and guys I made an Instagram! If you want go follow goddessofdauntlesscake**


	2. Chapter 2

I was bored out of my mind. As Nico slashed at me with his wooden weapon, I parried and deflected with ease. He attacked, I saw it coming. He strategized, I knew his plan. Children were of no interest to me unless they were able to outthink me. And those children I had lost interest in before had at the least gained my interest in the beginning. Nico didn't have my full attention from the start.

Once I had won yet another battle, I believe our fifth in the thirty minutes I had been there, NIco panted out, "I need a break," and staggered out of the room and down the hall. He returned quickly with two glasses of water and a plate of snickerdoodles on a tray. I eagerly devoured some of the precious cookies. I had not even seen one since last Christmas and it had been even longer since I had eaten any cookies. It was delicious and I had missed it.

"What do you wanna play?" NIco asked, pushing a stuffed rabbit off a chair to make room for himself. He did the same to the chair next to him, but I didn't feel like sitting. The boy frowned. I shrugged it off.

"I'm not sure. I don't know many games," I said, taking another cookie.

This cheered Nico up considerably. "We could play dragons. Or with Bianca's stuffies. Or we could even play chess or checkers if you want."

I shook my head, glancing out the window with a sigh. "I don't know how to play any of those," I admitted.

"I can teach you."

Have a little kid be teaching _me_ things? No thank you. "I'd rather not learn, thanks."

"You don't have to stay here, you know."

I froze. Yes, I had definitely done something wrong and blown my chances at a stable living space. Did he plan on kicking my mother and I out of his house? Would he tell Mrs. di Angelo to fire my mom? She would not fire a good working maid just because said maid's son was a stick in the mud would she? This seven year old had too much power over me than I had ever thought. I was shocked into fear.

"Wh-What do you mean?"

Nico sighed, a single tear rolling down his cheek. "You don't have to stay in here and play with me everyday. You can go with your friends or something. My mother would never know. She would still pay you and you wouldn't have to be around me."

That proposition sounded promising to me, but the tears that the little boy let out were enough for me to stop and reconsider what I had been doing. I tried to relax and look more approachable.

"Nico, why _does_ your mother want to pay me to play with you. You seem like a nice kid. Haven't you made any friends at school?"

"I don't go to school," he snuffled. "I have always been home schooled. At least back home we had neighbors whom were my age, but here we are surrounded by elderly people. I haven't seen a single boy, except for you. But you don't have to play with me. I can learn to play on my own."

A voice within me said that this kid was playing me. Reverse physcology. The kid was smart, but so was I. I was far too smart to fall for this.

But when I looked into those dark eyes, I saw a desperateness I never thought could exist in a child of his social standing. He was going through a tragedy. A was a child who had no friends to call his own. His family had packed up and moved to America on a whim. That, I think, constitutes a bit of empathy from me. I had also moved around and lost some friends. And he was crying for Zeus's sake. Despite what you may think, I am not heartless.

"That won't be necessary," I told Nico. "I would be more than happy to play some games with you. I plan on making you a friend and that's what friends do, am I right?"

Nico blinked as if he had not been expecting my words. "Really?"

I smiled. "Really really, buddy."

NIco grinned back at me, starting to put back his pirate toys and brought out a checker board. "Can I teach you to play checkers, Preston?"

I swallowed my pride and the lump in my throat as I nodded. Sometimes you have to learn things from your juniors, I supposed. "All right. How do you play?"

* * *

"On guard, Preston! If you do not fight me, Captain Nico of the Jolly Bean, you will have to walk the plank!" Nico exclaimed, chasing me around the playroom. I laughed and leaped over his advances, though sometimes I would stumble. I may have gone against some fierce fighters in capture the flag, such as Joyce from Poseidon and her beau Garrett from Ares, but Nico had gotten very good at being a pirate over the last few months. After I instructed him in some technics, Nico had even begun to surpass me in sword play. I had gone to a camp full of trained warriors for two summers and a barely taught mortal could disarm me? I was glad to have taken up long distance weapons back when I was first claimed.

"Nico, we don't have a plank!" I sputtered out through my laughter. The other boy had backed me into a corner and put his wooden sword up to my chest.

"That's Captain Nico to you, scoundrel!" he said while faking rage. "And we do so have a plank. On top of the table for you! Climb on and fall through the stuffies of doom!"

I hopped onto Bianca's tea party table, turned backwards and fell onto the pile of stuffed animals on the floor. "The plank has been walked, Captain! Anything else you want from me sir?"

Nico was trying his best to hold back his own guffaws. I could tell from his watering eyes that his laughter was close to suffocating him. I smirked, reached out, and began to tickle the life out of my little friend. Nico howled with laughter, sobbed tears of joy. This was by far the best part of my day; laughing and just having a good time with him.

"Preston," my mother's voice broke through the air as she opened the door. "Did you forget what today is?"

I shook my head and looked up at her from my spot on the ground. "It's Wednesday, mom."

My mom looked at me as if I was dense. "Yes, Pres, sweetie. It is Wednesday. June 5. You know, dear, the first day that you go stay with your father every year?"

My jaw went slack. I have forgotten the first day of camp. I was dense. I quickly stood up from the pile of stuffies and scrambled over to my mom. "Really? I can't believe I forgot."

Mother scowled at me teasingly. "I hope you didn't forget to pack, sweetie. Don't wanna forget something here. New York is a ways away."

I shook my head. I had finished packing last week. "I have everything, mother. I'll be down in a few minutes."

My mom nodded and exited the room. I turned to collect my things and stopped in my tracks. Nico was crying, giants tears rolling down his rolling down his face. I hurried over to dry them with my shirt.

"Nico, what's wrong bud? What happened?"

Nico snuffled, tears still flowing like a waterfall. "I-I forgot. That y-you're leaving. For three mon-months."

I smiled sadly at him. "Yeah. It's a long time, huh?"

He nodded. "You're telling me! I'ma gonna miss you, Pres." NIco enveloped me in a huge hug, squeezing tight. I wheezed out a laugh.

"I'm gonna miss you too, Neeks. Don't worry, though. I am still going to write to you. I can even call you when I get the chance. Maybe. And hey," I said, a thought coming to me. I took the shoelace out of my shoe and tied it to the size of Nico's wrist. "You can keep this pirate shoelace bracelet. I walk the plank, you get the treasure, right? I mean, it's a pretty bad substitute for treasure, but-"

Out of nowhere, Nico kissed my cheek. I could feel the crimson blush flowing up my face. Nico smiled. "Thank you Preston. I will treasure it always."

I felt Nico's lips on my cheek all the way to Long Island.

 **A/N This chapter is a lot shorter than the last one, but I felt like that was a good place to stop. And what the Hades Nico!? What are you doing? I don't even know ;) Just kidding. This may be the first time I am writing a story and am completely prepared. Like and comment what you think is happening. I hope you all are having a splendidly splenda week! Happy Thursday friends. Hope you enjoyed!**


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